Today over at Kirkus, I’ll have a Q&A with author/illustrator Melissa Sweet, in which we’ll discuss two of her brand-new picture book titles, as well as a bit more. That link is here.

As Vicky Smith wrote here at Kirkus this week, Black History Month is just around the bend. Wisely, she added: “[H]ere’s hoping that the industry does not forget or neglect books by and about African-Americans for the next 11 months.” Since teachers and librarians will be looking for new titles for the dedicated month-long celebration (and beyond, we hope), tomorrow at Kirkus I take a look at some new picture books for this annual February observance. That link will be here.

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Last week, I wrote (here) about Jed Henry’sCheer Up, Mouse! (Houghton Mifflin, January). Today, Jed visits to share art (a spread is pictured above), including a progression of images that shows the birth of the book jacket art. I thank him. Let’s get to it …

“Splash and paddle, wash and wade— / Cheer up, Mouse!Looks like Mouse is sinking deeper. / I can make him jump for joy.”(Click to enlarge spread)

Jed: “This is my initial line sketch for the jacket design. I draw directly into Photoshop with a Wacom tablet. I like sketching in Photoshop, because it allows me to make slight adjustments, without having to redraw the entire composition.It really helps when you’re juggling nine characters on every spread!”

Jed: “Because watercolor is such an unforgiving medium, I like to plan out the different color washes in Photoshop. I then use the color mock-up as a guide while I paint.”

Jed: “You can’t beat real watercolor for texture and spontaneity, so it’s time to break out the brushes! I paint at about 130% scale of the final book size — to squeeze in as much detail as possible. There’s no sense worrying about finesse;this will just be the base for later Photoshop work.”

Jed: “Next, I scan the watercolor painting back into Photoshop and continue the process digitally. The digital brush looks exactly like pastelswhen applied onto the watercolor background.”

Jed: “I add contour lines with a thin digital brush.”

Jed: “Finally the talented designers, editors, and printers at Houghton Mifflin work their magic. They’ve done a great job! I’m especially in love with the100% cotton rag paper — it feels so timeless!”

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For fun, here’s the book trailer below. And here’s what Jed said (hey, wait … I should have named this post “What Jed Said”) about its creation:

I studied animation in college, and even though my career has shifted over to publishing, I still get to animate every once in a while. This book trailer took about 3 solid weeks of work to complete. I cut the different illustrations into puppets, and animated them in After Effects. My super-talented brother, Jordan Henry, did the music. Some family friends did the Peanuts-style deadpan dialogue.